Why AI coding tools break your flow state
By
kilroy123
Worth a glance, not a chew.
Summary
The article argues that achieving a true flow state while using AI to code is essentially impossible. The author explains that the agentic loop of prompting, waiting, and checking disrupts any sense of control or immersion. Faster models are noted to be less reliable, requiring fixes that further break flow. LLM-powered autocomplete is also dismissed as either too dumb or too slow to be useful.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledHere's the neat thing: you don't.
The agentic loop excludes you. Even if you're asking the agent to do simple short tasks, it's still: prompt, wait, wait, wait, check, and you never really feel like you're the one in control.
The problem with faster models is also that they're more stupid, so that additionally breaks your flow when you have to fix something dumb it's done.
LLM-powered autocomplete is a bit more like it, but that tends to be either so dumb as to be a net negative, or slow enough to be useless.
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